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Accessing User Accounts in Control Panel

Hi all,I'm running a fully patched WinXP machine and recently when I tried to switch on fast user switching I got the error: "windows cannot open the User Accounts control panel". I cannot resolve the issue. I do not use system restore so that option is not available to me and I am reluctant to do a repair. any advice would be gratefully received. LKG does not resolve the issue, either.Kind regards,Excalibur909

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CTL Panel, User Accounts, change the way users logon logoff. Note any errors and paste back here.EG: Fast User Switching cannot be used because offline Files is currently Enabled. To make changes to Offline File settings, click OK.

The error message I receive when I double-click User Accounts in the Control Panel is "Windows cannot open User Accounts control panel". It's exactly the same when I enter "control.exe userpasswords" into the run command.

This is about all i can find for you to try. As HAL 9000 said check permissions and try this.Rename the existing nusrmgr.cpl file in Windows\System32 to nusrmgr.old. Run SFC and type in nusrmgr.cpl in the File to Restore field; clicke on Browse next to Restore from, then browse to the I386 folder, and type in nusrmgr.cp_ (ignoring the Files of Type being .cab); type in Windows\System32 as the Save file in field. Rename the file to nusrmgr.cpl.

The Msgina.dll file interacts with the Winlogon service to provide the Welcome screen and the Fast User Switching feature. Third-party software can replace the current Graphical Identification and Authentication data with their own Graphical Identification and Authentication data. The Fast User Switching feature and the Microsoft Welcome screen are not available if you are using a third-party product that replaces the Microsoft Graphical Identification and Authentication file (msgina.dll).

To restore the default Windows logon interface, remove the following string value from the registry:

After you do so, Windows uses the default Graphical Identification and Authentication file (Msgina.dll). (Me: do a hard drive search for the msgina.dll file before you try this. Also, export a copy of the entire Registry to a known location before editing the Registry.)

Fast User Switching is also not enabled if the available RAM is less than 120 megabytes (MB). Systems that have Shared Video Memory (where a portion of the system's RAM is used for video display memory) may reserve 8 MB or more for use as video RAM. If the system has a total of 128 MB of RAM installed, the total available RAM may be 120 MB or less after video memory is reserved. This will cause Fast User Switching to be disabled.

The Fast User Switching Compatibility service uses Shsvcs.dll. Without this file, the service cannot be started.

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